Climate Change Cripples Europe's Nuclear Plants

(MENAFN) As Europe endures an intense summer heatwave, the impacts of global warming are becoming starkly evident—even nuclear power, often hailed as a climate solution, is struggling under the pressure.

“While a lot of the nuclear public relations relates to nuclear as a sort of savior of climate change, unfortunately, the reverse is true,” Paul Dorfman, chair of the Nuclear Consulting Group and senior academic at the University of Sussex, told media. “Nuclear will be a significant and early climate casualty.”

This year, multiple nuclear facilities across Europe have been forced to reduce output or halt operations—not due to mechanical failures, but because the rivers supplying cooling water are either too hot or too shallow to effectively cool reactors.

France, where nuclear power generates about 65% of the nation’s electricity, has been hit hardest, with nearly all of its 18 nuclear plants reporting cutbacks this summer.

Cooling crisis: Rivers too warm for reactors
Europe operates roughly 166 nuclear reactors with a total capacity near 149 gigawatts (GW), making up about one-third of the world’s nuclear energy output.

France leads the continent with 57 reactors, followed by the United Kingdom with nine. Other significant nuclear operators include Spain, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, and Belgium, alongside smaller but strategic fleets in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia.

Many of these plants were constructed decades ago without consideration for climate change impacts, relying heavily on water—often sourced from adjacent rivers—to cool their reactors.

After absorbing heat from nuclear reactions, this water is usually discharged back into the environment. However, when river levels fall or water temperatures climb too high, the cooling process falters, sometimes posing serious safety risks.

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